What is going on with the East Alton Rotary Club? We will cover it here, along with all sorts of other interesting and off-kilter stuff that will inform, enlighten and amuse you.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

DO YOU REMEMBER?

Certainly, nobody could have anticipated that a movie about a talking
pig would bring in oodles of bacon at the box-office. But not only did Babe
ham it up on the big screen and charm millions of moviegoers by being
anything but a boar, but the film managed to get nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Picture in 1995. (click below to read more)

Not a bad feat for a mere
(though undeniably charming) swine.

The movie begins when a kindly farmer named Hoggett wins the
recently-orphaned Babe at the county fair. He brings his hog home – and
Babe acclimates to farm life, even managing to get adopted by Sly, the
family sheepdog. Babe is feeling pretty good about things until the
resident cat mentions that Babe’s fate will likely be a good ol’
fashioned farm feast. Babe decides he better make himself useful around
the place, lest he he end up with an apple in his mouth. He finds he has
talent as a shepard and that his innocent ways are far more successful
than the methods employed by the farmer’s dogs. His charming demeanor,
it turns out, goes a long way towards breaking down animal prejudice in
the farm community – and in the outside world as well.

Thanks to a bevy of special effects, a cast full of colorful
critters, including the high-pitched singing mice trio, and the charm of
a simple and honest plot, Babe was a sleeper hit, beloved by
folks of all ages who held a soft spot for the personable pig. Three
years later, Universal would try their luck again with Babe: Pig in the City,
a decidedly darker film with the innocent pig making his way into the
big city. Unfortunately, the sequel didn’t fare as well as the original,
although critics were mostly favorable in their reaction. Of course,
some bad reviews weren’t enough to get a happy-go-lucky pig like Babe
down in the mud. He knew there was more bacon to be eventually had in
DVD sales.